


Vox Lapina

by randomisedmongoose



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drabble Collection, Everybody's a rabbit!, Gen, Rating May Change, Tags May Change, Watership Down AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-01-07 06:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomisedmongoose/pseuds/randomisedmongoose
Summary: This is a collection of drabbles from my Critical Role Watership Down AU.





	1. Petrichor

It had been dry for a long time, now. The grass lay dead and yellowing on the hills, and the streams and rivulets that usually criss-crossed the landscape had dried up and now sported nothing but tiny trickles, if anything. All animals kept hidden in shadow as best they could, only coming out at night to eat or hunt and get some respite from the sweltering, never-ending heat. The rabbits of Emon warren had begun to make longer and longer treks to find food. Some had even taken up raiding the nearby farms for greens, a dangerous business in normal weather but even more so now, when the farmers themselves had to fight to keep their crops alive. More and more rabbits were lost to hunger, farmer’s traps and wandering, hungry _elil_.

A group of rabbits stood on the hill above the warren, unusually exposed against the rising July moon. _Owsla_ members kept close watch for owls or foxes as the others spoke in hushed voices or watched the unusual display they were there for.

A large, lithe, reddish brown young doe stood apart from the group. She sniffed in the wind, bobbing her head up and down. Her upright, silken ears shifted around, turning from one direction to the other. Behind her, flanked by her mate Uriel and her _owsla_ captain Tiberius, was Saldarah. The elderly but sleek and strong doe waited impatiently as the skittish young rabbit weaved and bobbed to catch the wind and the scents. There seemed to be little method or grace to whatever she was doing – she jumped up, crouched down, made a small run, then stood absolutely still. The head female rolled her eyes and stretched a back leg.

The young doe, Keyleth, reared up high on her hindquarters, closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. She turned both her ears forward and listened intently. Finally, she flopped back down and let her breath out in a long sigh. “There will be rain now, Saldarah”, she said timidly.

The imposing head female of the warren cocked an eyebrow and smiled indulgently. “Really now.” She turned her head to Korren, Keyleth’s sire and leader of one of the smaller cliques in the warren. The buck lowered his head in submission but nodded agreement nonetheless. “If Keyleth says that there will be rain, there will be rain, Saldarah.”

“I do think I need more than your word on this, Korren. If this drought won’t stop, our females will stop producing young. The colony will suffer. We might even have to move to another place where there is food and water, and dig new burrows. When you approached me saying your kit may have a solution to our problem, I really anticipated more strategy and less...” She glanced disapprovingly at Keyleth. “… whatever that was.”

“I understand your reasoning, Saldarah, but Keyleth hasn’t been wrong so far. She has a way of always knowing the weather. It is as if she brings the rains and winds to her.” Korren hopped over to his kit and nuzzled her encouragingly. The young doe cowered nervously under the scrutinising gaze of the head female. “Is that true?” Saldarah’s voice carried a distinct note of disbelief.

Keyleth didn’t meet Saldarah’s eyes. “Y-yes, I mean, there usually- it usually works that way. Yes.” She fell silent, looking like she wished she’d never spoken in the first place.

Saldarah rolled her eyes again, and turned to leave. “Frith save us from crazy rabbits. Korren, I suggest you keep your kit inside for a while – she appears to have gotten sunstroke. Next council meeting I want to hear useful plans, not more of this kind of _hraka_.”

The head female and her entourage started to make their way down to the burrows, when Keyleth suddenly came out of her crouch and leaped forward, intercepting Saldarah. “Wait! I- you can’t go now, there- it’s going to rain, I know it! Please?”

Saldarah looked at her with pity. “You really believe it yourself, don’t you?”

Keyleth took a deep breath, straightened up, and looked Saldarah straight in the eyes. “Yes. There will be wind. And then there will be rain.” She held the stare, challenging the head doe.

In the tense silence that followed, there was a slight stirring in the stale night air.

Then another.

And another.

A breeze picked up, growing stronger with each passing moment. Thunder rolled, far out on the distant plains beyond the hills. The breeze turned into a wind, and the sound of thunder could be heard again, accompanied by a flash of light.

Then, a droplet of rain hit the sovereign rabbit on the nose.

Then another.

And another.

The other rabbits fled into their burrows as a sudden summer rainstorm came crashing down on the hills. The only one left was Keyleth. Her face was lifted proudly into the wind and the rain, and she could smell the scent of the welcome water seeping into dry earth.


	2. Expedition

Grog growled and eyed the hissing _embleer pfeffa_ on the path before them. This _elil_ was nothing – he had scared off bigger threats than this, and he had the scars to prove it. This wasn’t even a surprise attack. This was a raid, and a well-prepared one at that. He, those freaky black loners Vax and Vex, his tiny but fierce sister Pike and his owsla captain, Tiberius, had decided to go steal _flayrah_ at the nearest farm to stave off the late-August boredom and, in Tiberius’s case, score some points with a certain female he was courting. They (well, everyone except for Grog) had hoped they would get through the expedition undisturbed, but had prepared for the worst. So, the cat’s sudden appearance was unwelcome but not surprising.

The cat hissed again and paced slowly towards them. Grog shot a quick glance towards Tiberius, barely containing his excitement. “So? We gonna go geddit?”

Tiberius gave a short nod and tensed up, ready to run. “Indeed. In this specific instance, I encourage violence.”

Grog truly needed no more encouragement as he sprang forward, his long hind legs propelling his densely muscular, scarred body forward to slam into the cat. In the corner of his eye he saw his litter-sister, his best buddy Pike, rush forward as she aimed her tiny form at the cat’s now exposed belly. Grog slashed and tore at the cat with brute strength and sharp claws, raking the sensitive nose as he felt the cat retaliate with slashes of its own. Pike was somewhere beneath the _embleer_ thing, hopefully getting in a few hits herself. Tiberius circled the fight as was his custom, shouting out commands and analysing the cat’s movements, helping Grog and Pike to find the best spots to bite and where the next opening would be.

Suddenly, a black blur shot out of the shadows with unbelievable speed. Vax jumped up on the cat’s back, lay two front paws, claws exposed, on each side of its neck and sank them in. The cat screamed in pain as Vax dragged his claws deep into its neck, drawing crimson blood. Then, he jumped off again, just as quickly, and vanished into the night. Grog huffed in surprise as he teared into the cat again, fur flying. Whod’a thunk it? The kit had claws, and good ones at that!

“Pike, stomach! Now!” Tiberius’s voice cut through the cat’s screams, and Grog could feel it tensing in pain as Pike used her small but muscular hind legs to rake it straight across its abdomen. He took the opportunity to sink his teeth into its bloody neck and bite down hard. The cat hissed and writhed, but couldn’t get away from the heavy rabbit latched onto its windpipe. It clawed frantically at both Grog and Pike, but Grog could feel its strength ebbing. He bit down harder, forcing the cat down on the ground. It gurgled and struggled, but blood loss and lack of air soon had it conquered.

Grog kept his tight grip on the cat’s throat until Pike crawled out from underneath it and nuzzled him.

“Brother? It’s dead. You can let go now.”

Grog came out of his rage-filled reverie and spat out a clump of cat hair. He could begin to feel the first stings of pain from the fight, and sat down contentedly as Pike started to lick the gashes on his flanks. Tiberius, Vex and Vax came up to inspect the dead cat. Tiberius puffed up and gave the cat a bap on the nose.

“Hah! There we are, then. Problem solved.” He looked around at the others. “Good work, everyone!”

Vex and Vex sat together, whispering and looking at the cat. Grog was, as always, a bit unnerved by how alike they were. He stood up on his hind legs and boxed playfully at Vax.

“Heh. Good work, yeah, right, blackfur?”

The smaller rabbit ducked and dodged. “I’m Vex”, she said with a grin.

Grog looked confused. “Yeh, uh… I knew that! ‘Course I knew.” He grumpily sat down again and let Pike lick his wound some more. Tiberius kicked dirt onto the dead cat, shook himself, and sat up on his hind legs.

“I think we have disposed of the most immediate threat at this junction”, he said. “So, Vex’ahlia, you claim to be a good tracker? Can you find us that _flayrah_?”

The doe snorted and combed her silky, hanging night-black ears. “Claim? Darling, me and my brother have sniffed out more _flayrah_ than you’ve seen mornings.” She flipped over and darted off towards the farm. “Keep up, captain!” Pike, Grog and Vax followed suit, leaving the captain behind. Tiberius harrumphed and darted after them.


	3. Silflay talk

It was after dusk, but _than Inlé_ , and he night was calm and full of scents.

Pike munched on a dandelion leaf and let her silky ears relax a little. Percy sat on his hindquarters, his white, tufty head high in the wind, sniffing the cool night air. Pike raised her head to look fondly at the scrawny young buck. “Relax, Percival. There are no bad smells, and the watchers haven’t thumped. Why are you so nervous?”

Percy shook his head and flopped down on his front paws. “I… I really couldn’t say, Pike. I just feel antsy when things are calm. Bad things happen when it’s been calm for too long.”

Pike swallowed the last of her leaf and hopped over to Percy, nuzzling him in the side. “You’ve said that before, Percy, and I still don’t understand. Why would the calm mean that something is going to happen?”

The young buck crouched slightly and stared out into the night without answering. Pike sighed and reared up on her hindquarters, and then unceremoniously flopped down on Percy’s neck, draping herself over the much larger rabbit like a fluffy, white scarf. “There. Does that feel better?”

Percy sighed contentedly, relaxed and lay down flat on the dewy grass. “Frith, yes. Thank you.”

They lay like that for a while, Pike calming Percy with her soothing display of dominance. Then she jumped down and nuzzled him again. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But you keep bringing it up, so I kind of get the feeling that you _do_ want to talk about it.”

Percy stayed on his stomach, white head on the ground and brown body stretched out. He sighed and scratched one ear. “I don’t, really. I’d just like to forget about it. But now that life is… calmer, it comes back.” He fell silent, and Pike could see his body tensing up again, and she noticed the slight trembling that always seemed to accompany one of Percy’s moods.

“I… I know I haven’t told you this, but.” Percy looked at his slightly shaking paws. “I’m really happy your clique picked me up, Pike – without Tiberius’s standing in the warren and Grog’s punches, I’d have remained a _hlessi_. Probably have picked a fight with one _elil_ too many and ended up with the Black Rabbit.”

Pike lay down beside him, her small, compact body fitting in easily beside his larger form. “I’m glad you didn’t.” Her presence was soothing, and gave him the strength to keep on talking.

“My warren was small, but a good one. My sire and dam were the head pair, and my litter-mates and I where content. It was a bit remote, up north. No farms around, but plenty of _flay_ , and just the occasional wandering _elil_. Life was good, kits were born, the warren prospered. One day, two rabbits came. Sylas and Delilah, a mated pair from a warren in the Briarwoods, further east. They were big, sleek, strong. They had an owsla with them. They were friendly and civil, at first. Said they wanted to talk about banding together – patrols for rooting out _elil_ , looking for _flayrah_ – things that would benefit both warrens. We listened.”

The shiver going through him became worse. Pike pushed up close to him.

“One night I woke up. Something was wrong. The smells, the sounds… nothing felt right. So we went too look for our family – my sister Cassandra and I, we shared a den. When we came to the main chamber…”

He pressed his head to the ground, eyes wide and unseeing. Pike felt the panic drifting off him like a grey mist, and had to struggle to not be gripped by his second-hand fear.

“ _Zorn_ , Pike. They were all dead.  Everybody I cared about.” He reflexively pawed at one ear, again and again, tugging at it until Pike laid her head on his paw, pinning it to the ground. She could feel the trembling lessen until he lay almost still again.

“The Briarwood rabbits – they had taken over. They’d killed my sire and dam and all my litter-siblings, all but me and Cassandra. They were so many. None of the rest of our warren dared take them on. We ran, Cassandra and I, and they ran after – they jumped at her, Sylas claws in her back – she bled so much, and I ran, I ran as fast as I could. I left her, Pike.”

Pike shivered at the self-loathing in his voice.

“I wandered. I don’t know how far... I dug a shallow burrow in a riverbank and spent the winter with some otters. They spoke passable Hedgerow, and since I didn’t eat fish, we could get along. In spring, I wandered again. Got chased away by a warren west of here. Then I found you, your warren. I hung around for a while, until the _owsla_ found me – I had gotten weak, otherwise I could probably have kept hidden from them. They dragged me back to Saldarah och Urielrah. You know – you were there.”

Pike released his paw and started grooming Percy. The last of the trembling subsided as she gently picked a burr from his flank. “I do. And we’d never seen such a useless _hlessi_.” She bopped him playfully on the nose. “But we liked you anyway, and now you’re with us. We’re your family now.”

Percy put his nose against hers and rubbed. “And a good family it is. Weird, but good.”

They returned to eating in silence as the moon rose above the horizon.

**Author's Note:**

> There's a work on the way that is based on the Chroma Conclave arc, these drabbles are more character studies and bits and pieces.
> 
> A guide to the Lapine language as written by Richard Adams can be found here: http://watershipdown.wikia.com/wiki/Lapine_Glossary. An extended dictionary can be found here: http://bitsnbobstones.watershipdown.org/lapine/dictlaptoeng.html.


End file.
